Why I don't play League of Legends: Riot Games

I don't like Riot Games. It's as simple as that. They're manipulative, a bit lazy, and they have all their fans and players wrapped around their finger.

The lore

I'll admit I've always been more of a storyline gamer. Since LoL is a MOBA, I didn't expect League to have a lot of storyline, but it does have a lore. Which sucks. It started off decent at first, but, as they introduced more and more champions, it slowly faded into nothing. Think about the backstory for the old champions in comparison to the new ones. The old champions at least had a paragraph or two. The new champions only have a couple of lines.

I know this isn't the biggest deal in the world, but the lack of little details like that bothers me. Riot couldn't take an extra five minutes out of champion creation to add a somewhat more in-depth backstory? It's not that hard. You can do it. I believe in you Riot.

Just because the game is free, doesn't mean your wallet is going to get away unscathed

People don't like microtransactions. They complain about them all the time, but when Riot does something similar, it's suddenly okay? In order to unlock more, and usually better, champions, you either have to spend hours collecting points to spend on them, or you put down some real money and buy them. Sounds awfully similar to the mobile games everyone complains about, right?

Skins

All skins do is make your character look different. Sometimes they'll change the look of a move, but that's it. They're there for nothing but visual appeal. League players seem to worship them anyways. They gawk at how wonderful they are, or how they're a series of skins, or how it changes the one move for the one character you never really used anyways. Then they go and spend money on it just to have it sit there and not be used very often. The more skins you collect, the less you use them as well because you have so many of them. You're spending money on something completely and utterly useless. Riot just keeps encouraging you to buy them and keeps releasing more.

Boosts

Boosts can only be bought using Riot Points, points obtained with real-life currency. These Boosts increase the amount of Influence Points or Experience Points gained at the end of the match. That would be a great reward, and rather useful, but you have to pay first. It's a horrible system and encourages the player. Riot makes leveling up and getting Influence Points tedious enough that players consider spending their real money, their hard-earned money, on getting Boosts to help them out.

Riot is doing nothing but tempting the player, encouraging them to spend money on characters and skins that they don't really need, especially if it is a limited edition. I understand Riot needs to stay in business, but that doesn't excuse them for taking money away from fans for simple items that have no impact on gameplay whatsoever, or shouldn't be needed for gameplay in the case of Boosts.

League of Legends = Life?

I've seen way too many people lose themselves to League of Legends. It's the first thing they do in the morning. It's the last thing they do at night. They play in between classes. They play at work. If they're supposed to be hanging out with loved ones, whether friends, family, or a significant other, it's going to be them sitting there with a laptop next to them playing League. It's an addiction and one, as you've probably been able to tell, I don't understand. Not everyone falls victim to this trap, but those that do fall hard.

Why?

League of Legends is made to be an addiction. There are many theories about why this is. Some people claim it's the competitive aspect of the game. Some people say it's the sheer amount of champions that you can play with. Yet others claim it to be that no two games will ever be exactly alike. As of now, there is no exact reason League is addicting. I've looked.

Real Life

There is no denying it. There are countless people online who fell victim to the addiction of League of Legends. Many post when they're able to quit. Many say they can't stop. In fact, there's a whole website dedicated to quitting League of Legends called www.quitlol.com.

We can't forget the man who died from playing League too long either. In 2012 there was a Taiwanese 23-year-old who died from playing 23 hours straight. He had a heartache due to fatigue, lack of movement, and the cold weather. In other words, League of Legends is made to suck you in and keep you in.

Riot does it on purpose

I understand everyone has a favorite game that they really like to play, but a game that encourages addiction and keeps releasing new champions, new skins, and new items to convince people to play more bothers me. It's not just a DLC or two here and there and then a possible sequel years later; it is constant and the new releases continue for years with very little break time in between.

Riot Games is pulling the strings on all of its players and abusing them in the process. It's not safe. It's not healthy. It's downright wrong.

Final thoughts

Admittedly, Riot has done some pretty cool things with League of Legends. They've just done more things bad than good in my opinion and I would rather not waste my time with a company that wants to take your money with stupid and worthless in-game items when they can't even include more than three lines for a champion's back story.

Keep in mind that this is my opinion and my experience with Riot.You could love Riot and have a good time with League of Legends. I don't and wish to express why that is, so maybe the game can be made more inclusive for people who view the company in the same light I do.

The microtransactions in LoL are justified well enough though. Its a free game, they have to make money somewhere. Mobile games microtransactions are usually justified if the games are free as well (Not so much if they are not free) unless they are a new title of an existing IP and the microtransactions ruin the core gameplay, like Dungeon Keeper Mobile.

Its when microtransactions go into paid games, then we have a problem (Dead Space 3, MGSV).

To me, these are all fair points. I was addicted to the game for nearly two years. I'm not keen on Riot's business model, though I know a lot of people love it because they simply don't care. A lot of people play garbage like Candy Crush and absolutely love it, because they either simply don't care. Your average person just could not care less about whether they're being exploited.

The game's monetization model is definitely not the only reason I quit, but it is a big part of it. And yeah, when they stopped doing lore it was a big slap in the face. I didn't care much for it, but my friends did. It's not like it's hard to write up a backstory for a champion. And the fluff was honestly just nice to have if just from the stance of giving them some sort of personality. Emotes are not personality.

Like I could go on and on about the qualms I have with LoL and Riot, but there really is no point. It won't change anyone's mind.